Aidan’s Story
When Aidan began the year with Achieve Now, he faced an uphill battle. He knew only one or two letters and struggled to isolate letter sounds at the beginning and end of words. An outgoing, talkative, and energetic child, Aidan was easily distractible and struggled to focus and to remain in his seat. In addition, he had a fixed mindset; if Aidan didn’t get something right the first time, he would often shut down and find it difficult to resume, slowing his progress.
The good news is that Aidan has a strong village of supports in place: his in-school reading specialist, Kristen Campbell (who also served as his classroom teacher for ten weeks); his Achieve Now reading specialist, Jordan Klein, and volunteer coach, Donna Lee, an attorney at Ballard Spahr; and his family, especially his father, David, who is very involved in Aidan’s progress and effusive in his praise for, and pride in, Aidan’s accomplishments.
The first order of business, Campbell says, was to attend to Aidan’s “pre-reading” skillset. At the beginning of the year, she worked to help him learn to set distractions aside to focus on the task at hand. Campbell invested a great deal of time in Aidan; in the Fall, she saw him as part of a small group; in January, she started working with twice a day: 30 minutes every morning and 45 minutes later in the day.
Aidan’s Achieve Now coach, Donna Lee, was a terrific fit for him. From the outset, she was patient and consistent, offering gentle correction language and redirecting him when he lost focus. Lee adapted to Aidan’s learning needs and activity level, rewarding short, digestible work intervals—three questions; two more minutes—with dance breaks, calisthenics, or opportunities to draw.
At the midpoint of the school year, Klein and Lee decided to build Aidan’s confidence by skipping the concepts he was struggling to grasp. With the more challenging activities gone, he was able to absorb information better and, with his confidence as a reader boosted, began to blossom. From that point on, Aidan’s retention and focus improved markedly. As a consequence, he was able to accomplish much during each coaching session.
One day in the Spring, Lee recalls, they got through a whole lesson in one sitting. “He was so focused,” she recalls, “and much more confident in his skill set…more excited about learning than he was in the beginning.” As the year came to a close, he showed noticeable gains in his ability to hear letter sounds at beginning of words. Klein says, “you could see the lightbulb going off every time he heard a word.” On his final assessment, Aidan correctly identified 45 new letter names and sounds. Campbell reports that he is beginning to blend sounds to form three-letter words like “cat.”
This is a tribute to Aidan, who was highly motivated and always tried his best. Lee, who is coaching in our program for the fifth time, believes Aidan worked harder than any student she’s ever had. His story serves as a reminder that, although a student may not focus for an entire 45-minute session, it does not mean they are not trying their best. “He was motivated to get better, he was excited when I saw him,” Lee remarks, adding, “He grew so much over the year, so I was just very, very proud of him.”
